India Selects Pilatus Basic Trainer
Jun 16, 2011
India Selects Pilatus Basic Trainer
NEW DELHI
Looks India have 150 trainer planes now. please can you guys stop planning, can you show where your planes are
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India has selected the Swiss Pilatus PC-7 aircraft as its beginning trainer for Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots.
The Swiss aircraft, along with Grob's G-120 TP, Embraer's EMB-312 Super Tucano, Finmeccanica's M-311, Hawker Beechcraft's T-6C Texan-II and Korean Aerospace's KT-1 participated in the flight trials last year.
"Of the three short-listed firms from the U.S., Korea and Switzerland, the bid made by Pilatus has emerged the lowest," says India's chief of air staff, Air Marshal P.V. Naik.
The total cost for the basic trainer is likely to be around $1 billion. The aircraft are expected to be delivered over the next two years.
"We have started price negotiations with the Swiss vendor for supplying 75 aircraft to train new pilots," Naik says.
After the Pilatus deal is signed, the IAF is likely to send some of its young pilots to Switzerland for training. "As we need a better trainer aircraft, we hope to induct the PC-7 into our fleet in the next two years for training the new pilots," Naik says.
The PC-7 turbo trainer is a low-wing tandem-seat training aircraft, capable of all basic training functions including aerobatics, instrument, tactical and night flying.
"Offering a reliable and economic training platform, the docile behavior of the PC-7 Mk. II in the hands of a beginner delivers a confidence-building environment for inexperienced cadets," the company says. "With its highly cost-efficient Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-25C engine, it provides the lowest engine operating costs of all turboprop trainer aircraft."
The Swiss vendor has sold about 500 aircraft during the past three decades to 21 air forces worldwide.
Following the grounding of the indigenous HPT-32 Deepak trainers by the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. in 2009, the IAF has been scouting for a basic trainer.
